" FOR the past 36 years, since Barack Obama was ten, Hillary Clinton has been a regular visitor to Texas. And the local demographics are surely auspicious. Roughly 40% of Texas Democrats are Hispanic, and in the previous contests Mrs Clinton has accumulated twice as many Latino votes as Mr Obama.
Her ties to the state and its Hispanic community date to 1972, when she and her then boyfriend Bill Clinton spent the summer working on George McGovern's presidential campaign in San Antonio. Mrs Clinton registered and organised Latino voters, and they have not forgotten. “She stood for us then. We stand with her now!” said Leticia Van De Putte on February 13th, introducing Mrs Clinton at a rally in San Antonio. The crowd, split evenly between whites and Latinos, gave Mrs Clinton the kind of ecstatic reception normally reserved for Obama events.
But in Texas, Latinos may not be the firewall that the Clinton campaign needs. The Obama mystique transcends cultural barriers. “God bless you!” shouted Maria Pardo as Mr Obama wrapped up his own San Antonio rally a few days later. She explained in Spanish that Latinos need a president who does what he says. “He's got words that can reach to every corner of the world,” marvelled another Hispanic lady, “and the world is waiting for him.” "
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10733056
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